"The next year, at just about the same period, I was seized, just as
one is with a periodical fever, with a new desire to go to Italy, and I
immediately made up my mind to carry it into effect. There is no doubt
that every really well-educated man ought to see Florence, Venice, and
Rome. There is the additional advantage of providing many subjects of
conversation in society, and of giving one an opportunity for bringing
forward artistic generalities which appear profound. This time I went
alone, and I arrived at Genoa at the same time as the year before, but
without any adventure on the road. I went to the same hotel, and actually
happened to have the same room.
"I was scarcely in bed when the recollection of Francesca which, since
the evening before, had been floating vaguely through my mind, haunted
me with strange persistency.
"Have you ever been obsessed by the thought of a woman, long afterwards,
on returning to the place where you loved her and she gave herself to you?
It is one of the most powerful and painful sensations I know. It seems as
if one could see her enter, smiling and holding out her arms. Her
features, elusive yet clear, are before your eyes. She passes, returns and
disappears. She tortures you like a nightmare, holds you, fills your
heart, and stirs your senses by her unreal presence. She is visible to the
eye, her perfume haunts you, the taste of her kisses is on your lips, and
the touch of her body caresses your skin. Yet, one knows one is alone, and
one is strangely tortured by the phantom one has evoked. A heavy,
heart-breaking melancholy invades you, as if you were abandoned for ever.
Everything looks depressing, filling the heart with a horrible sense of
isolation and abandonment. Never return to the house, the room, the woods,
the garden, the seat, the town, where you have held in your arms a woman
you loved.
"I thought of her nearly the whole night, and by degrees the wish to
see her again seized me, a confused desire at first, which gradually grew
stronger and more intense. At last I made up my mind to spend the next day
in Genoa, to try and find her, and if I should not succeed to take the
evening train.
"Early in the morning I set out on my search. I remembered the
directions she had given me when she left me, perfectly--Victor-Emmanuel
Street, the Passage Falcone, St. Raphael Street, house of the
furniture-dealer, at the bottom of the yard in a court.
"I found it without the least difficulty, and I knocked at the door of
a somewhat dilapidated-looking dwelling. A fat woman opened it, who
must once have been very handsome, but who actually was only very dirty.
Although she was too fat, she still bore the lines of majestic beauty;
her untidy hair fell over her forehead and shoulders, and one fancied one
could see her fat body floating about in an enormous dressing-gown covered
with spots of dirt and grease. Round her neck she wore a great gilt
necklace, and on her wrists were splendid bracelets of Genoa filigree
work.
"In rather a hostile manner she asked me what I wanted, and I replied
by requesting her to tell me whether Francesca Rondoli lived there.
"'What do you want with her?' she asked.
"'I had the pleasure of meeting her last year, and I should like to
see her again.'
"The old woman looked at me suspiciously.
"'Where did you meet her?' she asked.
"'Why, here, in Genoa itself.'
"'What is your name?'
"I hesitated a moment, and then I told her. I had scarcely done so
when the Italian raised her arms as if to embrace me. 'Oh! you are the
Frenchman; how glad I am to see you! But what grief you caused the poor
child. She waited for you a month; yes, a whole month. At first she
thought you would come to fetch her. She wanted to see whether you loved
her. If you only knew how she cried when she saw that you were not coming!
She cried till she seemed to have no tears left. Then she went to the
hotel, but you had gone. She thought that most likely you were travelling
in Italy, and that you would return by Genoa to fetch her, as she would
not go with you. And she waited more than a month. Monsieur; and she was
so unhappy; so unhappy. I am her mother.'
"I really felt a little disconcerted, but I regained my self-possession,
and asked: 'Is she here now?'
"'No, she has gone to Paris with a painter, a delightful man, who loves
her very much, and who gives her everything that she wants. Just look at
what she sent me; they are very pretty, are they not?'
"And she showed me, with quite southern animation, her heavy bracelets
and necklace. 'I have also,' she continued, 'earrings with stones in them,
a silk dress, and some rings; but I only wear them on grand occasions. Oh!
she is very happy, sir, very happy. She will be so pleased when I tell her
you have been here. But pray come in and sit down. You will take something
or other, surely?'
"But I refused, as I now wished to get away by the first train; but she
took me by the arm and pulled me in, saying:
"'Please, come in; I must tell her that you have been here.'
"I found myself in a small, rather dark room, furnished with only a
table and a few chairs.
"She continued: 'Oh! She is very happy now, very happy. When you met her
in the train she was very miserable, for her lover had just left her at
Marseilles, and she was coming back, poor child. But she liked you at
once, though she was still rather sad, you understand. Now she has all she
wants, and she writes and tells me everything that she does. His name is
Bellemin, and they say he is a great painter in your country. He met her
in the street here, and fell in love with her immediately. But you will
take a glass of syrup?--it is very good. Are you quite alone, this year?'
"'Yes, I said, quite alone.'
"I felt an increasing inclination to laugh, as my first disappointment
was dispelled by what Mother Rondoli said. I was obliged, however, to
drink a glass of her syrup.
"'So you are quite alone?' she continued. 'How sorry I am that Francesca
is not here now; she would have been company for you all the time you
stayed. It is not very amusing to go about all by oneself, and she will be
very sorry also.'
"Then, as I was getting up to go, she exclaimed:
"'But would you not like Carlotta to go with you? She knows all the
walks very well. She is my second daughter, sir.'
"No doubt she took my look of surprise for consent, for she opened the
inner door and called out up the dark stairs which I could not see:
"'Carlotta! Carlotta! come down, quickly, my dear child.'
"I tried to protest, but she would not listen.
"'No; she will be very glad to go with you; she is very nice, and much
more cheerful than her sister, and she is a good girl, a very good girl,
whom I love very much.'
"I heard the clatter of slippers on the stairs, and a tall, slender,
dark girl appeared, also with her hair hanging down, and whose youthful
figure showed unmistakably beneath an old dress of her mother.
"The latter at once told her how matters stood.
"'This is Francesca's Frenchman, you know, the one whom she knew last
year. He is quite alone, and has come to look for her, poor fellow; so I
told him that you would go with him to keep him company.'
"The girl looked at me with her handsome dark eyes, and said, smiling:
"'I have no objection, if he wishes it.'
"I could not possibly refuse, and merely said:
"'Of course I shall be very glad of your company.'
"Her mother pushed her out. 'Go and get dressed directly; put on your
blue dress and your hat with the flowers, and make haste.'
"--As soon as she had left the room the old woman explained herself:
'I have two others, but they are much younger. It costs a lot of money to
bring up four children. Luckily the eldest is off my hands at present.'
"Then she told all about herself, about her husband, who had been an
employee on the railway, but who was dead, and she expatiated on the good
qualities of Carlotta, her second girl, who soon returned, dressed, as her
sister had been, in a striking, peculiar manner.
"Her mother examined her from head to foot, and, after finding
everything right, she said:
"'Now, my children, you can go.' Then, turning to the girl, she said:
'Be sure you are back by ten o'clock to-night; you know the door is
locked then.'
"'All right, mamma; don't alarm yourself,' Carlotta replied.
"She took my arm, and we went wandering about the streets, just as I
had done the previous year with her sister.
"We returned to the hotel for lunch, and then I took my new friend to
Santa Margarita, just as I had done with her sister the year previously.
"During the whole fortnight which I had at my disposal I took Carlotta
to all the places of interest in and about Genoa. She gave me no cause to
regret the other.
"She cried when I left her, and the morning of my departure I gave her
four bracelets for her mother, besides a substantial token of my affection
for herself.
"One of these days I intend to return to Italy, and I cannot help
remembering, with a certain amount of uneasiness, mingled with hope, that
Mme Rondoli has two more daughters."